In Joyce Oates "Four Summers", Oates explores pain and misfortune accompanied in the growing years of a young girl, Sissie. Oates chronicles her journey in four sections showing her emotional growth and development through her behavior towards her family and peers. Throughout each part, Sissie displays a different level of maturation towards her marriage, family, and life. Furthermore, the unconscious and conscious forces depicted throughout the short story offers a psychoanalytical point of view to better understand Sissie's character structure and effects as she becomes an adult.
In the first section, Sissie begins her story with, "It is some kind of special day" (Oates 20). This simple sentence introduces her youth and simplistic outlook
